ISLAMABAD: Agriculture is very important pillar of Long Term Plan (LTP) of China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) and the government is giving it priority aiming at modern, systematic, standardized and intensified construction of the agricultural industry.
The governments of the two countries have agreed to constitute a group to explore and ensure implementation of different initiative in agri sector, an official in Ministry of Planning Development and Reforms told APP here on Thursday.
He said China and Pakistan had agreed to give full play to their own comparative advantages to strengthen agricultural infrastructure construction within the CPEC coverage and played their own roles in agricultural personnel training, technical exchanges and cooperation.
It has already been decided to cooperate in key construction areas such as biological breeding, production, processing, storage and transportation, infrastructure construction, disease prevention and control, water resources utilization, conservation and production, land development and remediation, ICT-enabled agriculture and marketing of agricultural products to promote the systematic, large-scale, standardized and intensified construction of the agricultural industry.
“China and Pakistan have an agreement to promote the transition from traditional agriculture to modern agriculture in the regions along the CPEC to effectively boost the development of local agricultural economy and help local people get rid of poverty and become better off, strengthen the up-gradation of agricultural infrastructure, promote the construction of water saving modern agricultural zones, and increase the development and remediation of medium and low-yielding land to achieve efficient use of resources,” the official added.
Under CPEC, efforts are being made to strengthen drip irrigation technology for water
efficiency, strengthen cooperation in the fields such as crop farming, livestock breeding, forestry and food growing, and aquatic and fishery, with the highlight on technical exchange and cooperation in the fields of development of comprehensive agricultural production capacity, construction of farmland water conservancy facility and agricultural products circulation facility.
The CPEC Agri sector is also focusing on improving post-harvest handling, storage and transportation of agricultural products and innovates in marketing and sales models, Improve water resources operation and management, strengthen development of pastoral areas and desert, and promote application of remote sensing technology.
The key cooperation areas focus on strengthening production of agriculture inputs particularly pesticides, fertilizer, machinery and support services including agriculture education and research, collaboration in forestry, horticulture, fisheries and livestock medicines and vaccines as well as strengthening production of horticulture products